Claude Christian Lutete IV (born October 9, 1996) is an American-Congolese professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

player for Bosna Visit Sarajevo of the Bosnian League and the ABA League 2. He also plays for the DR Congo men's national basketball team. Lutete played

college basketball College basketball is basketball that is played by teams of Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. In the Higher education in the United States, United States, colleges and universities are governed by collegiate athle ...

for Radford and

UMass Lowell The University of Massachusetts Lowell (UMass Lowell and UML) is a Public university, public research university in Lowell, Massachusetts, with a satellite campus in Haverhill, Massachusetts. It is the northernmost member of the University of M ...

Early life and high school career

Lutete grew up in

Silver Spring, Maryland Silver Spring is a census-designated place (CDP) in southeastern Montgomery County, Maryland, United States, near Washington, D.C. Although officially Unincorporated area, unincorporated, it is an edge city with a population of 81,015 at the 2020 ...

and attended

McKinley Technology High School McKinley Technology High School is a public citywide 9th–12th grade high school in the District of Columbia Public Schools in Northeast Washington, D.C. The school, an offshoot of Central High School (now Cardozo Senior High School), originally ...

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

He played a

post-graduate year Postgraduate education, graduate education, or graduate school consists of academic or professional degrees, certificates, diplomas, or other qualifications usually pursued by post-secondary students who have earned an undergraduate (bachelor' ...

Phillips Exeter Academy Phillips Exeter Academy (often called Exeter or PEA) is an Independent school, independent, co-educational, college-preparatory school in Exeter, New Hampshire. Established in 1781, it is America's sixth-oldest boarding school and educates an es ...

, which he said was one of his best decisions because it made him uncomfortable. Lutete averaged 17 points per game and was named to the All-NEPSAC Team. Lutete committed to Radford over offers from several

Ivy League The Ivy League is an American collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference of eight Private university, private Research university, research universities in the Northeastern United States. It participates in the National Collegia ...

schools.

College career

Lutute played sparingly during two seasons at Radford and made three starts. As a freshman, he averaged 2.9 points and 2.2 rebounds per game. Lutete averaged 4.5 points and 2.4 rebounds per game as a sophomore. Following his sophomore season, he transferred to

because a high school teammate was on the team. As a redshirt junior, Lutete averaged 18.7 points and 7.6 rebounds per game, shooting 53.4 percent from the field and 39.5 percent from behind the arc. He earned Second Team All-

America East The America East Conference (AmEast) is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with NCAA Division I whose members are located in the Northeastern United States. The conference is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1979, t ...

and All-Academic Team honors as well as being named to the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) All-District 1 First Team. On November 8, 2019, Lutute scored a school-record 51 points and grabbed nine rebounds in an 87-74 victory over

LIU Liu (; or ) is an East Asian surname. pinyin: in Mandarin Chinese, in Cantonese. It is the family name of the Han dynasty emperors. The character originally meant 'battle axe', but is now used only as a surname. It is listed 252nd in the clas ...

. Lutete broke his left wrist during his senior season but did not tell anyone until the season was over. He averaged 19.3 points per game as a senior, second-best in the conference, as well as a team-high 7.0 rebounds per game. Lutete earned Second Team All-America East honors and was named to the Division I Academic All-America First Team. He was named America East Man of the Year due to his academic achievements in earning his master's degree in peace and conflict studies as well as mentoring District of Columbia College Access Program scholars.

Professional career

On July 29, 2020, Lutete signed his first professional contract with

CSU Sibiu BC CSU Sibiu is a Romanian professional basketball club, based in Sibiu, Romania. The club competes in the Liga Națională, winning the championship in 1995 and 1999. The home arena is Transilvania Hall, a 1850-seat arena in Sibiu. History In ...

of the Liga Națională. He averaged 8.6 points and 2.1 rebounds per game. On February 28, 2021, Lutete signed with

Bashkimi Prizren Klubi i Basketbollit Bashkimi, also known as K.B. Bashkimi or simply Bashkimi , is a professional basketball team based in Prizren, Kosovo. Bashkimi is the oldest basketball team in Kosovo and competes in the top professional men's basketball lea ...

of the

Kosovo Basketball Superleague The Kosovo Basketball Superleague (Albanian: Superliga e Kosovës në Basketboll) and known as the ProCredit Superliga due to sponsorship reasons is the top men's professional basketball league in Kosovo. Basketball Superleague was founded in 1991 ...

National team career

Lutete made his debut for the DR Congo men's national basketball team in July 2022, in a

2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup The 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup was the 19th tournament of the FIBA Basketball World Cup for men's national basketball teams, held from 25 August to 10 September 2023. The tournament was the second to feature 32 teams and was hosted by multipl ...

qualification. On July 2, he scored 19 points and had 6 rebounds in a 72–60 win over

Senegal Senegal, officially the Republic of Senegal, is the westernmost country in West Africa, situated on the Atlantic Ocean coastline. It borders Mauritania to Mauritania–Senegal border, the north, Mali to Mali–Senegal border, the east, Guinea t ...

Personal life

Lutete is the son of Claude and Lishion Lutete and has an older sister, Bijou. His favorite basketball player is

Kobe Bryant Kobe Bean Bryant ( ; August 23, 1978 – January 26, 2020) was an American professional basketball player. A shooting guard, he List of NBA players who have spent their entire career with one franchise, spent his entire 20-year career with t ...

References

External links

Radford Highlanders bioUMass Lowell River Hawks bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lutete, Christian 1996 births Living people American expatriate basketball people in Kosovo American expatriate basketball people in Romania American men's basketball players CSU Sibiu players Basketball players from Silver Spring, Maryland Phillips Exeter Academy alumni Radford Highlanders men's basketball players Shooting guards UMass Lowell River Hawks men's basketball players Democratic Republic of the Congo men's basketball players Bashkimi Prizren players KK Bosna Royal players 21st-century American sportsmen 21st-century Democratic Republic of the Congo sportsmen